Wednesday’s Capitol Shot Put set for spotlight in downtown Sacramento

6/22/2014

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Capitol Shot Put is one of the headlining events of the 2014 USATF Championships, being held on the grounds of the California State Capitol beginning Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT. Entry is free and all rounds will be shown live on USATF.tv.

The women’s qualifying rounds of the shot put will be followed by the men’s preliminaries. The finals of the shot put begin at 4:30 p.m. PT with the women’s competition, while the men start their finals at 6:15 p.m. PT.

American record holder Michelle Carter looks to defend her title in the event, having captured two of the last three national crowns outdoors. The Ovilla, Texas native swept both the indoor and outdoor national titles in 2013 and will look to do so again in 2014. Carter tossed an American record 20.24m/66-5 in Des Moines last year, punching her ticket to Moscow.

Heightened by an exciting Diamond League race in 2014, men’s shot put looks to impress in downtown Sacramento with four athletes neck-and-neck in the hunt for a national championship. Christian Cantwell (Columbia, Missouri), Reese Hoffa (Athens, Georgia), Joe Kovacs (Nazareth, Pennsylvania) and Kurt Roberts (Ashland, Ohio) have all thrown 21.50m this season.

Cantwell is a two-time Olympian and three-time World Indoor gold medalist in the event, while Hoffa is a three-time Olympian and three-time World Indoor medalist. Kovacs and Roberts are relative newcomers to the international scene, with Kovacs finishing just outside contention for a spot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and Roberts qualifying for the 2014 World Indoors team in Sopot, Poland.